The American Gaming Association is touting the benefits that casinos have given to Pennsylvania to state lawmakers in an effort to tweak the state’s gaming regulations to promote the industry.
The AGA sent a letter to leaders in the Pennsylvania legislature, citing a study by Oxford Economics that shows the state’s casino industry contributes $6.2 billion to the state’s economy, generates $2.4 billion in tax revenue and supports 34,000 jobs.
Pennsylvania, the second-largest casino market in the U.S. in terms of revenue, is the largest jurisdiction in the country when it comes to taxes collected.
The letter calls on state lawmakers to create a new gambling policy and regulatory regime, although the AGA has not released specifics regarding what those tweaks to the regulatory scheme would be.
Geoff Freeman, the AGA president and CEO, used the Philadelphia conference of the International Association of Gaming Advisors to urge lawmakers to rethink the tax policies instituted when the gaming law was passed in 2004, which has the state taking around half of casino revenues.
“How do we take 34,000 jobs and turn it into 50,000 jobs?” Freeman asked. ”How do we take $2.4 billion in tax payments and turn it into $3 billion?”
The answer, he said, is to lower gaming revenue taxes. “The policies developed around casino gaming were based on the perception that this was a monopoly, that there was easy money to be had,” he said, noting that today’s environment calls for lower taxes so operators can reinvest in their properties.
“There’s a time where they’re going to have to reinvest, something you see in Las Vegas and beyond,” Freeman said.
